From the Director of Counseling at Virgina Tech...
Best,
Susan Quinby
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Tue, 17 Apr 2007 07:05:25 -0400
Thread-topic: [aucccd-l] Virginia Tech shootings
From: "Flynn, Chris" <[log in to unmask]>
To: "Assoc of Univ & Coll Couns Ctr Directors" <[log in to unmask]>
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 17 Apr 2007 11:05:25.0600 (UTC)
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> Dear Colleagues: Thank you all for your emails and offers of support
> and assistance. As you can imagine, yesterday was extremely painful and
> chaotic for all involved - in the morning, my staff and I responded to
> news of a "domestic incident" in a residence hall. Two students were
> killed in this incident and we were meeting with students when news of
> continued gunfire at a building across campus reached us. The campus
> was locked down for hours until we could be sure the shooter was under
> control; the toll was unimaginable for our students, faculty, and staff.
> We met with student groups in various areas for most of the evening
> including sitting with families as they awaited news about missing loved
> ones; sadly most news was not good.
>
> Today will be a day for sorting out the campus needs. We have
> convocation for the university community scheduled for 2:00 p.m. at
> which various university officials will speak including me. I have
> scheduled a meeting at noon for all campus providers of mental health
> services including faculty and staff from the clinics run by clinical
> psychology, marital and family therapy, counselor education, women's
> center, and others to organize our responses. Red Cross is here and
> coordinating resources for family and workers. Many of our students
> have left campus to go home so we are not sure what turnout we will
> receive at the convocation. I certainly anticipate that demand for our
> services will increase from this time forward as students return to
> campus and memorial services begin. I certainly appreciate the offers
> of staff time and other resources and we will know better by day's end
> what we will need.
>
> I do want to add that our police, Blacksburg police, State Police, and
> FBI all responded quickly and appropriately - the criticisms I have seen
> are simply infuriating.
>
> Best to you all, Chris
>
> Christopher Flynn, Ph.D.
> Director, Cook Counseling Center
> Virginia Tech
> 540-231-6557 (office)
> 540-231-2104 (fax)
>
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>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kathryn Hamilton [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: Monday, April 16, 2007 2:12 PM
> To: Assoc of Univ & Coll Couns Ctr Directors
> Subject: [aucccd-l] Virginia Tech shootings
>
> To Chris,
>
> Heartfelt wishes to you and your staff today as you begin to work with
> this almost unimaginable tragedy. As others have said, if there is any
> way that I or others can help, please let us know when you have the
> opportunity.
>
> Kathy Hamilton
>
>
>
> To all,
>
> Only a few days ago, Louise Douce sent out a query to the list wondering
>
> if other campuses had had a recent rash of deaths, suicides, and related
>
> events. Here at UW, as some of you know, we had a murder-suicide two
> weeks ago almost to the hour of today's shootings, and I'm aware that
> others are also coping with similar recent events. Several other
> campuses responded to Louise's question; so did I, but back-channel.
>
> In light of all of this, I think it might be helpful when we get a
> chance to inform our listserv if more of us have had similar incidents
> so that we can all utilize this information in whatever way may be
> relevant to our situations. Two weeks ago when I went to our Northwest
> Directors' conference for part of a day (because I couldn't leave my
> campus for two whole days in the aftermath of our shootings), two other
> directors in the group had also had students murdered that same week. I
>
> am going to our Regents' meeting in May to talk about student mental
> health issues, and was already planning to talk with them more than I
> usually would about prevention and training related to domestic violence
>
> and relationship issues. I think it would be helpful to us all to have
> more complete anecdotal information about what feels like a real upsurge
>
> in student deaths and critical incidents. I am wondering whether this
> may stimulate change on some of our campuses in areas such as housing
> policies, police procedures, HR policies, and in other areas, as
> Columbine did in high schools.
>
> Our event was a murder-suicide, domestic violence situation; the shooter
>
> was not a student, nor was the staff member murdered. But she was a
> 2004 graduate of UW who had stayed on to work as a staff member in the
> same college. We have seen an upsurge in self-referrals and
> consultation calls from faculty and staff about DV situations since the
> event. The event happened on the first day of our annual Sexual Assault
>
> and Relationship Violence week.
>
> Thanks to all. I know we are all feeling this along with Chris and his
> staff and the Virginia Tech community.
>
> Kathy Hamilton
>
>
>
> ---
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> </pre>
>
> ---
> <pre>
> AUCCCD LIST
>
> To contribute messages: [log in to unmask]
> To read archived messages or change your list settings:
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> QUEST - a service of the MSU Counseling Center, 207 Student Svcs,
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> </pre>
Mary C. Commerford, PhD
Director, Furman Counseling Center
100 Hewitt Hall
Barnard College
3009 Broadway
NY, NY 10027
212-854-2092
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